With the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics, "2008" was pushed to the center of public opinion. Netizens are all nostalgic for that summer, the Olympic event that was wonderful from beginning to end.
And the reason why that year has a profound historical significance for the public is, of course, not only because of an Olympic Games. Historical events large and small, and the thriving entertainment industry, have attracted people's attention and thinking.
This also contributed to two songs of great significance that year: first, the star-studded "Welcome to Beijing", which became a classic that will be looked at every Olympic Games;
And what shines with it for a while is jay Chou's "Magic Constellation" in the song "Daoxiang" created for the Wenchuan earthquake. This weighty Zhou's hip-hop folk song has inspired countless confused people.
In 2008, when it was repeatedly mentioned, we found that there is no better time to re-publish "Magic Constellation" than now! I hope we can use the physical sense of the CD to take you to touch the memories of that year.
Jay Chou's "Magic Constellation" (Star Alien 2021 Re-edition)
Pre-sale opens today!
An underrated masterpiece
Compared with Jay Chou's early works that broke boundaries and established a style, his ninth album "Magic Jam" is often easily forgotten when discussing Jay Chou.
Many music critics said that Jay Chou only counted the first seven albums as "divine expertise", and his subsequent works were far inferior to them.
However, when we search for "Jay Chou" on the music platform, we will find that a large part of the popular singles come from this "Magic Sign" - "Daoxiang", "Sea of Flowers", "Say Good Happiness"...
And this album swept the music scene that year, helping Jay Chou win three heavyweight awards at the Golden Melody Awards: The Best Song of the Year, the Best Music Video of the Year, and the Best male singer of the year Chinese.
Looking back at this "Magic Constellation", the biggest feature, and its most successful point, is "gorgeous".
"Magic" is the most prominent element of this album, it is well known that Jay Chou is very passionate about magic, and Jay Chou, who was originally a Capricorn, with notes and creativity, transformed into the new constellation "Magic" in the starry sky.
This mysterious constellation, which is incomprehensible to horoscope experts, is sometimes shaped like a knight on a playing card, and sometimes becomes a clown on a ghost card, changing different shapes and styles.
Under the cloak of magic, a variety of themes have emerged, including Jay Chou's iconic bitter love songs, works depicting calligraphy sacred relics, and brisk works that follow childhood.
"Magic" not only makes the whole album gorgeous in appearance and concept, but also metaphorically the core of the music, presenting a variety of interesting musical paths, making it diverse and unified.
Magic, magic, time and love
The theme of the songs on this album can probably be summarized by magic, magic, time and love.
| magic |
■ Every note of "Mr. Magic" seems to be dancing and dancing, Jay Chou's singing voice and the song's alternative gorgeous "American New Australian style", plus the whole song arrangement is presented in a way full of jazz orchestra performance, all of which are full of novelty.
The whole song is full of Easter eggs, with Fang Wenshan specifically echoing the lyrics of "Cowboy Is Busy", and there is also an adaptation of "The Sound of Music", and the dialogue at the beginning that teaches Jaylen to change magic is even more witty and interesting.
■ "Uncle Jock" hides the main theme of loneliness under the cheerful music style.
The song was inspired by Batman: The Dark Knight, and unlike the evil Joker in the movie, the Joker in the song is closer to ordinary people and often has a sense of loneliness that has nothing to rely on.
| magic |
■ As the debut track of the entire album, "Dragon Warrior Knight" is similar to "Half Orc" to Jay Chou's other album "Octave Space".
The whole song is based on the concept of the alternate world a hundred years later, depicting the cold future and the eternity of love.
■ "Snake Dance", which was jointly sung by Lara Liang Xinyi, was quite exotic, and the two brought the combination of "Coral Sea" to this song, and we felt like we were in a small market full of Egyptian flutes, and we watched a snake-making performance.
| time |
■ In Jay Chou's album, the indispensable thing is sweet songs. "Time Machine" adheres to the fresh and youthful style of Zhou's love songs, and takes everyone to sit on the time machine and return to the past with the image of "Little Ding-Dong".
It is worth mentioning that the MV of this song spent millions of dollars to create a live-action version of the Tinker Bell universe, vividly showing the innocent side of adults' hearts, and jay Chou's "Tinker Bell Guitar" played in the MV has also become a classic.
■ "Daoxiang" won the best song of the year at the 20th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, which shows its influence and popularity. This song, which takes Jay Chou's childhood life as the source of creation, leads everyone back to the rice field in memory with the style of smart hip-hop.
At the same time, Jay Chou also said that the song was created for the Wenchuan earthquake, trying to convey the simple truth of "contentment". As the lyrics go, "Cherish everything, even if you don't have it." ”
■ The inspiration for "Orchid Pavilion Preface" is the "Orchid Pavilion Collection Sequence" by Shusheng Wang Xizhi, and Fang Wenshan combines elegant and atmospheric ancient style words and sentences with modern love stories.
Jay Chou also tried the singing method of Peking Opera Xiaodan hanging his voice in the song, which has the feeling of drama in the play. He even took to the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in 2011 and performed this song.
| love |
■ Although "The Wandering Poet" is a relatively unpopular work, the interlacing of Hokkien and Chinese in it shows Fang Wenshan's lyrical skills, and this song describes the cute emotions of the brothers who like the same girl but are ashamed to express.
■ "Give Me a Song Time" is a classic R&B love song, and it is also another work written by Jay Chou himself after "Daoxiang", with his slightly crying voice, the whole song is interpreted romantically and bitterly.
■ Another bitter love song, "Sea of Flowers", is more island style and tropical atmosphere. This song combines the style of British rock, and Jay Chou challenges the high note to break the doubt of singing ability, and realizes the perfect combination of musicality and musical temperament.
■ The most popular song, "Say Good Happiness", is an outdated classic love song to this day. This song, which can be called the "most regrettable love song" of 2008, is mainly accompanied by piano accompaniment, which sets off a choking picture of a breakup.
The MV of "Say Good Happiness" invited Chen Kuangyi, a new generation of beautiful girl in Taiwan who later starred in the MV of Wang Lihong, Zhang Jie, Pan Weibai and other songs, and even filmed on the day typhoon "Rose" entered Taiwan, which was full of scenes.
It is the times that have made Jay Chou's "Magic Sign", and it is also "Magic Sign" that has achieved that brilliant 2008.
Instead of indulging in the memories of 2008, it is better to have this 2021 re-edition of "Magic Constellation" and relive the feeling of that year! On the WeChat Mini Program [Hedonic Music Mall] search [Magic Block], you can participate in the pre-order!
* Editor: Kikko
*The above pictures are from the Internet
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